A new survey in conjunction with the iUTAH water preservation project is under way this week to study household water use and resident perspectives on water policies and resource issues in Utah.
Researchers from Utah State University will collect information from 180 randomly selected households in 21 neighborhoods across the Cache, Salt Lake, and Heber-Midway valleys.
Courtney Flint, Associate Professor of Natural Resource Sociology at USU said the five-year iUTAH project is a collaborative effort pulling from many areas of study, from ecology to hydrology, sociology to climate science, in a statewide effort to maintain and improve water sustainability.
“The project is really big,” said Flint. “It’s sort of trying to get a handle on all things water and trying to build the scientific research capacity to understand water for the future of Utah and the future of Utah’s water, for the long haul.”
Flint said residents are important players in the water system and believes the survey will add the residents’ perspective into the already-diverse mix of voices in the water conversation.
“This project is really trying to get out to households across our study areas, to bring that household component of how water is used and how stakeholders think about water to the table with all this other water science and engagement going on in the project,” said Flint.
Flint said the survey will include questions concerning household water use, motivations for using water, secondary water use and views and concerns regarding water policy and usage.
Survey efforts begin in Cache County Friday and will continue there until mid-June. The survey will continue in the Salt Lake and Midway areas until July.
